Insulated wires are used in myriad applications. For instance, insulated wires may be used to create electromagnetic devices, such as motors. In particular, the wires may form coils that are wound around a magnetic core. When current flows through the wires, a magnetic field is created which may cause the core to move and produce a force. In other cases, the insulated wires may be used as part of a sensor, such as a linear variable differential transformer. Here, the wires may make up a primary winding and a secondary winding that define a bore, and a magnetic core may be disposed in the bore. The magnetic core may be configured to move axially within the bore relative to the wound wires and cause a differential current flow through the windings.
Typically, the insulated wires are made from a conductive material that includes a coating of an insulating material. The insulating material, which may be polyimide, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a dielectric material, or another suitable material having insulative properties, is typically applied to the conductive material via spraying. For example, an automatic spraying system may spray the insulating material onto the conductive material. Though spraying produces adequate results, the automatic spraying system may potentially clog, which may increase system downtime and decrease productivity. Additionally, spraying may not be useful for producing insulated wires having precise coating thicknesses.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an improved method of forming insulated wires, where the wires may be used in relatively high temperature environments (e.g., greater than about 240° C.) and may be bent into a desired shape at any time after being coated with the insulation. In addition, it is desirable for the improved method to be relatively inexpensive and simple to perform. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the inventive subject matter will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the inventive subject matter and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the inventive subject matter.